Save Me!
by Kalira69
Summary: Keith's pretty unflappable, but he's still a little taken aback when Handsome Neighbour suddenly dives out of his apartment and- "Save me!" ... Okay, Keith's handled weirder things. (Modern AU; Written for Sheith Month, Day 8)


Written for Day 8 of Sheith Month: Save Me.

* * *

Stepping out of the stairwell on his floor, Keith begins shifting his bags of groceries around so he can fish out his keys.

A door down the hall a little past his own opens and Keith's gaze flicks up automatically. He stills as his neighbour - to whom he has never spoken, though they exchange polite nods when they pass each other and the other man's small, distracted smile is ridiculously cute - comes _running_ out. Keith's brows rise.

He spots Keith quickly and darts straight for him, eyes wide and face pale. Keith braces himself.

"Oh god, please save me!"

Keith blinks, glancing around the other man - the hallway is otherwise empty and perfectly calm, as he thought - even as he tenses warily. "What? What is it?" he asks quickly, even as the other man slides behind him as though using Keith as a shield. Their respective builds being what they are Keith can't help but think he wouldn't make a very good one in this case.

"In my apartment!" Keith's neighbour says, looking pitifully relieved for a moment. He eyes his own door - left open as he fled - warily and Keith frowns slightly, then moves ahead of him down the hallway and, after a glance back at the man, in through the open door into a plain living room cluttered with books and a large telescope. "Um. In- In the bathroom." he says as he follows Keith inside, staying behind him.

There is nothing immediately amiss, but Keith puts his bags of groceries down on the floor just inside the door and looks around for the bathroom. It isn't _quite_ the same floorplan as his own apartment, but it's easy enough to find his way all the same.

Keith slips through the doorway, prepared to deal with who _knows_ what manner of disaster.

He still cannot see anything amiss. He squints, looking the whole room over again. It's cleaner than his, not that he's a slob or anything, and while he isn't familiar with how it _should_ look nothing appears to be out of place.

"There!" His neighbour won't step past him, but steps up close to his back and points around his ribs at the tub itself. Keith frowns, only a little distracted by the heat of the man at his back. It still takes him a moment to realise what his attention is being directed towards. "Please take care of it!"

Keith stares at the small creeping blot on the white porcelain. ". . .there's a grass spider in your tub? _Seriously?_ "

" _Please!_ " says the incredibly well-built, handsome man who is _still cowering behind Keith_. Keith looks around and finds soft grey eyes staring pleadingly at him.

Keith has never been a sucker for puppy eyes before, but he shakes his head and caves immediately. "Okay, hang on." He gently nudges his neighbour away and steps closer to the tub, bending down and-

"Wait!"

Keith pauses and looks around, fingers a few centimetres from the spider. "Er. Yeah?"

"You're just going to _grab it_ with your bare hands?" His neighbour's face is pinched with distaste. "Don't you want, uh, a paper towel or something? Or. . ." He trails off awkwardly, flushing.

Keith's lips twitch, but he controls his reaction. "Nah, I'm fine." he promises evenly, and turns his attention back to the spider, gently closing his fingers around it and picking it up as it flails its legs. He straightens and turns around and his neighbour plasters himself against the wall by the door, pretty eyes wide.

"Wha- Where are you going with that?" he asks, his voice pitching higher.

Keith stops and draws back again, holding the spider closer to his body, keeping it away from the other man. "I . . . was going to take it to put it outside. Do you want me to squash it?"

"Oh. Oh, no, that's- Put it outside, please." His neighbour nods hurriedly and Keith nods slowly back. "I'll- I'll open the window." He slides sideways before stepping backwards out the bathroom door, eyes on Keith's hand, and somehow manages to navigate his apartment - which is a little messier than Keith's; more general clutter - to the bedroom, and then across it to the window, without stumbling or running into anything except the doorframe, which he bumps off of as he finds the edge of the partially-open door with one hand.

He opens the window with a little fumbling probably caused by his inability to keep his gaze on what he is doing with his hands, then takes a couple of huge steps away from it, still watching Keith closely.

Keith resists the quiet urge to laugh at him, especially because it's clear he's honestly distressed, but the sight is . . . a bit silly. Keith makes sure to keep away from his neighbour as he crosses to the window, then leans out and puts the spider on the wall outside. It scurries off his fingers onto the brick, then freezes, waving two legs in the air.

Keith pulls his upper body back inside and closes the window quickly, though he doubts the spider is about to make a break to slip back through the window itself. "All safe." he says, turning away from it and smiling at his neighbour. "Unless there's another one somewhere?" he teases, arching an eyebrow.

"Oh I hope not." his neighbour says with what looks to be mild alarm. "Thank you _so much_ , I'm sorry, I-" He flushes again as he leads Keith back through the apartment to where he left his groceries. "I must have seemed like a crazy person, but you humoured me and uh. Thanks, really."

"Hey, any time." Keith says, rolling one shoulder.

"I'm Shiro." his neighbour says, holding out a hand and smiling at him. Keith feels a bit wobbly for a moment, and swallows. It's bigger and more focused than the smile Keith usually sees.

He shifts his groceries to free up his hand and shake Shiro's offered one. "I'm Keith." he replies automatically, his attention swallowed up by the warm feeling of Shiro's palm against his and his attention caught by the tiny shifts in Shiro's bright expression.

"Can I thank you? Uh, take you out for coffee or something?" Shiro asks with a charming smile.

Keith shakes his head slightly. "Hey, no need. I mean, really, any time."

"Ah, of- of course." Shiro nods, squeezing Keith's hand once more and then releasing it.

"If you just really _want_ to take me out for coffee or something, though, I mean. Erm." Keith clears his throat, glancing aside and then back up at Shiro.

Shiro's smile is broadening. "Yeah. I mean, my hero," he says lightly, "I feel like I really should, don't you think?" Keith laughs softly, ducking his head. "Tomorrow?"

"Sure." Keith says, tilting his head slightly as he looks up at Shiro. "Tomorrow sounds good . . . Shiro."

* * *

 **Coda:**

"So how did you two get together?" Allura gestures with her wine glass, smiling at Shiro and raising her eyebrows curiously.

Shiro gave a little laugh, feeling his cheeks begin to warm.

"He fled his own apartment and dove for cover behind me, begging me to save him." Keith says evenly, and Shiro ducks his head.

"I didn't _dive_. . ." he mumbles.

"You dove." Matt says dryly.

"You weren't even _there_!" Shiro defends quickly.

"I've seen you around spiders." Matt says, swinging his bottle of beer idly by the neck. "You dove."

"I rescued him. Afterwards he offered to take me for coffee as a thank you." Keith says lightly, left hand resting on Shiro's thigh, idly running down it towards his knee, then back up. "That was our first date. Unless you count me saving him from the grass spider." He laughs.

Shiro sighs, but leans into Keith affectionately anyway. He still saves Shiro from spiders without complaint or teasing, though he boggles at Shiro's fear of them.

* * *

This was the second story I wrote when preparing for Sheith Month.

It was also inspired by a Tumblr post:  
the "This is totally awkward considering before this the only interactions we've ever had have been casual nods to each other in the hallway but there's a huge fucking spider in my bath tub and you seem like the friendly neighbor type please help me" AU


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